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Carlos Sainz says Williams need to “do more” to cut the performance gap on tracks like Barcelona, after a disappointing Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix for the team. Sainz said: "We need to do more than what we are doing already. Every week for the team it's super important to find points of downforce or kilos of weight. I realise that the team is pushing flat out, at the moment we are all pushing with everything we have."
Lando Norris said he was surprised by how close he was able to stay to Mercedes during the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix as he took confidence from returning to the podium. Norris said: "Quite a bit actually. I just wasn't expecting to be… It wasn't like I was fighting the Mercedes, but I was always there. I wasn't far behind at all, and I probably wasn't expecting to be quite that close for the whole race. So, the fact we kind of pulled things around and we seemed to be stopping on good laps and things like that, I think shows good signs. A better day than I was expecting. I certainly wasn't expecting to be on the podium."
Jos Verstappen says Ralf Schumacher is “spreading misinformation” after Schumacher claimed Max Verstappen had been offered a Mercedes contract but rejected it because the financial terms were not good enough. Jos Verstappen said: "Ralf, you're spreading misinformation again."
Martin Brundle says George Russell needs to address a recurring late-stint pace issue against Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli if he wants to stay in the Formula 1 title fight. Martin Brundle said: "In the second half of each tyre stint Antonelli had a speed advantage to catch Russell, but couldn't quite make the overtakes stick. This has been a theme generally so far this season and something George has to fix if he wants this championship."
Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack says the team has to stick with Adrian Newey’s decision to hold off on bringing small upgrades to the AMR26, even though he admits it is “weighing on everyone” after a difficult weekend in Barcelona. Krack said: "Yeah, I agree, and it's weighing on everyone. You can feel it. You can feel it in the garage. You can feel it especially with the drivers. We discussed it already before. It's a very difficult situation. On the other hand, we have a strong leader. When the decision was made, it's for all of us to commit to that decision, even if it's difficult."
Lewis Hamilton says he has quickly formed a strong connection with his new Ferrari race engineer Carlo Santi after sharing the podium with him at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, where Hamilton took his first win as a Ferrari driver. Hamilton said: "Yeah, it was great to have him up there. I think, him kind of substituting this year, jumping in and diving in deep with me. We didn't know each other, we'd never spoken and I didn't really know anything about him. And we met and I think got on straight away."
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says Lewis Hamilton is “absolutely” a title contender this season after the Ferrari driver’s win in Barcelona, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli retiring late on Sunday with a power unit issue. Wolff said: "Yes, absolutely [I see Hamilton as a title contender]. We are so early this season again. I don't know what it is, 40 points [ahead], you see a DNF, lost you 25 points, and it's wide open. That's why we can't afford to not finish, and we need to just keep putting performance on the car, on the power unit, not make mistakes, be clever with the strategy, and stay absolutely on it."
Toto Wolff says Formula 1 should stick with its Additional Development Upgrade Opportunity rules for balancing power unit performance and stay away from Balance of Performance systems used in series such as the World Endurance Championship. Wolff said: "I get a rash of allergy when talking about BoP. This is something that we should stay far away from Formula 1. It's a political mess in all the other series."
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur says he will not get drawn into Lewis Hamilton title talk or change the team’s approach after Hamilton’s Barcelona victory cut Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead. Vasseur said: "I'm not sure that I want to reply to this kind of question. I had probably the same comments two weeks ago, that everything was a disaster - and now we are speaking about the world championship. The approach is to go to Austria exactly with the same approach that I had in Barcelona and not to think about the championship. I will never do it."
Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari's first win of the season would not have happened without changes he pushed for behind the scenes, and credited team boss Fred Vasseur for backing them after his victory at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Hamilton said: "He continued to believe, continued to be a good friend, continued to be a great teammate and an ally and really supportive. And, you know, ultimately, he really listened at the end and I had to really ask, really ask for some of the changes. And he enabled them to happen, which I'm forever grateful for, because this wouldn't have happened without those changes."
Sergio Perez says his performances since joining Cadillac have shown he is still “one of the best” drivers in Formula 1, after struggling in the final months of his Red Bull stint before leaving the team at the end of 2024. Perez said: "Well, obviously, when you look at my last six months at Red Bull, you wouldn't think that I'm one of the best out there. But when you understand the circumstances I was in at that point, and the people that understand performance at the end of the day, when you see the level of performance that I'm putting in with my team, you realise that I'm one of the best out there."
Esteban Ocon says his main role at Haas is to pinpoint the team’s priorities for improvement and push for them to be addressed quickly, amid renewed speculation about his future with the team. Esteban Ocon said: "I feel like my job is really to point exactly where we need to improve, and to really push these points as quickly as possible. Because in F1, we've divided different departments, and some things are priorities, some things are not. Some things are priority, but my job is to really show what is the priority and push it forward."
Max Verstappen says Red Bull are currently the fourth-fastest team and the RB22 is still a “work in progress” after he finished fourth at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Verstappen said: "It's clear that I think we are still behind the Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren, because we finished behind each one of them. So we're still P4 as a team. Maybe a little bit better, but still not where we want to be. But it's a work in progress."
Liam Lawson says he is in a “better place” than he was this time last year, after a difficult start to the season with Red Bull that led to him being demoted back to Racing Bulls. Lawson said: "On a personal level – probably, I think we're always evolving and learning. So, the more experience I have, I'm going to get better. And I think compared to last year, I would say I'm in a better place. There's been a bit more consistency this year and that's been helping."
Liam Lawson says Racing Bulls need to improve their race pace to keep pushing at the front of the midfield after the team scored points with both cars at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Lawson said: "Yeah, for us it's good. It's a long season; we have a lot of races to go. Alpine have had some good races recently and scored some good points. But yeah, if we keep this trend – obviously we had a quick car in qualifying – hopefully that translates to the rest of the season. I think Barcelona is normally quite a good sign for that, so we just need to sort out the race car."
Lewis Hamilton thanked Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur for backing him and listening to his “relentless” push for changes, after Hamilton’s maiden win for the team at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Hamilton said: "Because I am very, very vocal – if I see something that I don't think is right, I push very, very hard, that's like at the core of who I am and I'm relentless with it. And I think it's it's not easy to be on the receiving end of that... [I] had to really ask – really, really ask – for some of the changes, and he enabled them to happen, which I'm forever grateful for, because then wouldn't have happened without those changes. So, big, big thank you to him."
Martin Brundle says there is “no easy solution” to the Monaco Grand Prix penalty fallout, with teams challenging pit-lane speeding penalties and the race result still provisional nearly two weeks after the event. Brundle said: "It's all a mess with no easy solution. It turns out one of the timing loops in the Monaco pit lane was 77cm shorter than calibrated hence lots of 60.1kph recordings when the limit was 60kph. It had been a topic of correspondence since first practices, and some teams adjusted their limiters."
Martin Brundle says Pierre Gasly’s Monaco Grand Prix podium reinstatement is a “mess with no easy solution” after Alpine’s right to review the pit lane speeding penalty imposed on Gasly was upheld. Brundle said: "That's a very complicated and uncomfortable decision. Other drivers in Monaco had served their penalties and adjusted strategies accordingly, and Russell's race was destroyed, but because they were not post-race penalties nothing was changed for them retrospectively in the results. This also sets a precedent of not serving marginal in-race penalties to preserve the right to contest them post-race. It's all a mess with no easy solution."
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